I promised myself to only watch a few minutes of Lost last night, and then sat through the whole thing. That show is scientifically calculated to get you shamelessly hooked. I honestly don’t know what’s going on half the time since I missed a couple seasons in there, but now I know that whenever anything bizarre happens, no one else knows what’s going on either. You just have to keep watching for explanations, which of course, never come.

Last night, “the others” character Juliet was talking about how they all speak Latin because it is the language of the enlightened.

Certainly plenty of people through the ages believe it is the language of the educated. If nothing else, it couldn’t hurt to know it if you’re practicing law or medicine. So, here and there I try teaching it to my son. Though I never learned it, it’s pretty easy as far as foreign languages go, because you only need learn to pronounce the words, not fuss about with a proper accent.

Recently I found a copy of Olivia in Latin, and bought it as a reminder to practice. Ian Falconer is a genius at capturing character. My favorite part is the picture of her wearing a toga and eating grapes on the back.

I thought it would be fun to adapt my favorite muffins a little. For some reason, though, the carrot muffin recipe makes twelve, while this one makes about sixteen. Go figure. If you’re going to bake with me, it seems you’ll need to own an extra muffin pan.

If you want to make these low fat (or you make them low fat by accident like I did), just leave out the oil. They are quite good.

I know you’ve all been wondering where I have been. Sorry. It’s been a crazy few weeks. I am currently planning lots of new things for sophistimom (thanks to some of the ideas of our creative reader, Brooke, at ConversationsWithACupcake). All the brainstorming is cutting into time I could be spending making new posts. Don’t worry, though. The new and improved sophistimom.com will be online soon.

Most of the time, people will tell you to rinse leeks scrupulously to get rid of all the dirt and sand that collects between the leaves. I don’t trust this method, since it seems the dirt really likes to hide. I saw Rachael Ray use this method once, and it works better than any other way I have tried.